Learn English – The origins and usages of “waffle”

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Scottish dogs used to waff

American voters waffled in 2000

British politicians “waffle on” for hours

And Swedish children eat them on March 25th

Waffle

nowadays has basically three meanings:
Source: Oxford Dictionaries

  1. AmEng, to fail to make up one’s mind
  2. BrEng, waffle on speak or write, especially at great length, without saying anything important or useful
  3. A small crisp batter cake, baked in a waffle iron and eaten hot with butter or syrup.

stack of waffles with maple syrup being poured a customer in a "waffling" restaurant who can't make up his mind U.S

But if we investigate its etymological origins we discover much more.

From Proto-Germanic *weƀaną we obtain the verb weave (900), which has two meanings; (1) "to weave, form by interlacing yarn" (2) "to move from one place to another". From this latter term the name weevil, a small beetle, was probably derived. Weave was also the source for the Old English noun webb which meant "woven fabric, woven work, tapestry", whose meaning was later transformed to web, as in a spider's web (13th C) and cobweb (14th C).

From the the related Middle Low German wāfel the term was loaned to Middle English (1377) and became wafer. The actual woven-like waffles that we eat today arrived in the US with the first Dutch settlers in 1620 on the Mayflower and were originally called Dutch wafers. By 1735 the Dutch wafel gained an extra "f", becoming waffle.

The onomatopoeic waff (17th C) which means to bark or to yelp like a dog is, sad to say, virtually obsolete but its modern-day counterpart, woof (19th C), still thrives. From An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808) by John Jamieson we gleam that since at least 1678, waff and waif meant "the act of waving" and "to fluctuate" whereas waff alone, denoted someone who was worthless.

WAFF 3. Worthless. A waff fellow, one whose conduct is immoral; or whose
character is so bad, no one will associate with him

snippet taken from Scottish Dictionary
second snippet

But there is no mention of it meaning to yelp or bark incessantly.

According to Random House Dictionary waffle with the BrEng meaning of talking idly, and foolishly without purpose is derived from waff (the yelp sound) and first appeared in print between 1695-1705

However I found in A Glossary of North Country Words, with Their Etymology, …
compiled by John Trotter Brockett, William Edward Brockett (1746) this snippet, which confirms that waffle in northern England was used as a verb meaning to wave and to fluctuate synonymous with wabble and derived from the German weyfelen and Swedish wefta (of which the second sounds very much like wafer to me)

snippet of waff & waffle

Once again there's no mention of it meaning yelp.

Today in Europe, waffles are popular snacks in Belgium; Portugal; France; The Netherlands; Germany, and Sweden, whose inhabitants celebrate Annunciation Day on March 25th by eating waffles. However, in the UK they are rarely eaten for breakfast, or at any time. British people know what waffles are but they are considered primarily, an American treat.

Source:Antique Electric Waffle Irons 1900-1960: A History of the Appliance Industry in 20th Century America (2003)

Questions

  • Have I got the facts straight? I have crossed-reference and triple-checked where possible but nevertheless I may have committed some errors.

  • When was the American to waffle (the intransitive verb, meaning to be unable to make a decision; waver) first used and where? I've read it is connected to the Scottish waff, but I did not find any references to its first use in speech or print.

  • Is there an explanation for the divergence in meaning between the BrEng sense i.e. Lengthy but vague or trivial talk or writing (OED) and its American counterpart? The verb is largely derogatory, which I find particularly curious.

  • And finally, has this divergence narrowed? Are American speakers familiar with the UK sense and vice-versa?

EDIT TO BOUNTY

  1. To clarify, because I realize the wording may have been misinterpreted. Can anyone find an American citation, quote, quotation, excerpt etc. with the term waffle meaning to vacillate dated before 1962?

  2. Not one answer has so far attempted to explain the divergence between the US and the UK meaning of waffle. I know it's not easy, but that's why I've put up 350 points.
    Phew!

Best Answer

REVISED

A lesson in the dangers of relying too heavily on Google Ngram (aka mea culpa)

Previously, I posted an Ngram chart illustrating my surprise that waffle used in its verb form seemed to not exist before the late 1950s. When using Ngrams I started with a much wider timescale: 1800 to 2008, I hadn't noticed the tiny bump that appeared sometime in the 1920s. My error, my fault and for that I apologize. Here is the same Ngram updated.

Ngram plotting "waffled"

When I dug a little deeper, I found a quote dated 1913 using waffle in its gerund form. Here is a new Ngram chart with "waffling" included in the search. As you can see, it tells a very different story.

Ngram display with "waffling" included

Notice how waffling dominates the map, making he waffled insignificant and irrelevant.

Furthermore, by sifting through the results on Google books I discovered that the term, waffling, refers to the art of making waffles and can be jokingly called a sport. On top of that, it's often used in the compound noun waffling-irons with and without the hyphen, and its past participle can be used as an adjective, as in a waffled breakfast, waffled toast, waffled potatoes, waffled surface, waffled chiffon, waffled material, waffled leather or a waffled quilt. (Who would have thought being an etymologist could be so exhausting!)

As a result, I still maintain that the question is not one of general reference. The scope for discussion is much wider than simply looking up waffle in Wikipedia.

A British speaker commented:

If someone keeps changing their mind, they are by definition being vague and talking about nothing in particular. There could be other reasons to (hiding something... not knowing what they are talking about, etc) but that doesn't alter the fact that BrEng and AmEng agree that indecisive people waffle.

I believe the difference is more marked than the one suggested by the user. And I'll do my best to explain why.

Collins Dictionary gives this definition

British English: waffle If someone talks or writes a lot without saying anything clear or important, you can call what they say or write waffle. He writes smug, sanctimonious waffle. Word Origin C19: of unknown origin

Merriam-Webster offers

intransitive verb 1: equivocate, vacillate “waffled on the important issues”; also : yo-yo, flip-flop “she waffled when asked what she thought of her sister's new boyfriend”

Origin of WAFFLE
frequentative of obsolete woff to yelp, of imitative origin First Known Use: 1868

1.

I'll include my personal definition of the BrEng sense of the word waffle which I left in a comment to the aforementioned British speaker who argues that there is no discernable difference.

Waffling in BrEng is primarily someone who keeps talking endlessly about nothing in particular, it's like a drone sound, a lot of words being said or written without coming to any conclusion. I wouldn't include hesitation or indecisiveness. The act of waffling could disguise someone's insecurity, as people do have a tendency to rattle on when they are nervous. Some, instead, become tongue-tied

From 1957 a British newspaper clipping (1957)

the term *waffling* is used to describe Labour MPs

“... little darling that ever walked this earth! She's a princess! She's a fairy! She's a — ” The rhapsodist broke off short, and flushed red. “Forgive me,” he said “for waffling like that, but I don't quite know what I 'm doing just at present. Dad, I'm the happiest man that ever lived!”

2.

From The New York Times the AmEng sense

Wishy-washyness, often spelled wishi-washiness, is not synonymous with flip-floppiness. I dealt with flip-flop, both noun and verb, a few months ago, defining the side-switching not so much as a permanent change of mind but with its verb synonym "waffle" (from the Scottish waff, "gust of wind"; nothing to do with the Dutch wafel, "cake baked on a grid").

The American journalist, William Safire, in this excerpt is clearly saying that flip-flop is synonymous with waffle and not with verbosity or excessive wordiness. The journalist continues “The standard English synonym for the flip-flop verb is "vacillate."”

Another instance, which illustrates more clearly the difference between AmEng and BrEng use of waffling

Think of how much time you waste waffling between a yes and a no, deciding whom to hire, where to locate your business and how to organize your day. Now there is software that can make your choices easier.

Source: InfoWorld - 15 Aug 1983 - Page 88

A British speaking person may have said “humming hawing” (US hem haw), “wavering” or “dithering” in its place. “Sitting on the fence” is another alternative.

  • The earliest instance I found for "waffling between" is dated 1964 in the Ontario Library Review, Volumes 48-49

His hero is a 30 year old Catholic bachelor waffling between the priesthood and love of a lass, who is, alas, both a protestant and a librarian. This is a readable novel with many droll characters.

The earliest reference I found in Google books with waffled as it is used today is dated 1962 from The U.S. Government Printing Office.

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It's interesting to note that the term waffled is described as local jargon and in the earlier clipping it is quoted, implying that the term was relatively new and considered almost dialectal.

Conclusions

The findings so far seem to suggest that the verb waffle as used in the UK and in the US is much more recent than any of the references or dictionaries I consulted have suggested. There is no evidence that proves that the AmEng verb existed (at least in print) before the 1950s. Whereas in the UK the earliest instance of waffled, meaning to speak at great length without meaning, is dated 1913.

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